Siri, the automated personal assistance feature Apple acquired and integrated into iPhone 4S, has attracted lots of comparisons with apps or system services for alternative mobile platforms, but none come close to doing what Siri can.

Can't Tellme much

Last week, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie stated in an interview that his company's Windows Phone 7 has included a similar Tellme voice recognition system for a year now, suggesting that Apple's only edge was in its marketing of the feature.

However, a video comparison of Microsoft's Tellme and Apple's Siri created by Australian tech site TechAU demonstrated that while Windows Phone 7 devices can in fact listen to speech, they can't decipher phrases very well and have no ability to handle sophisticated tasks like scheduling events in the user's calendar.

Prior to Mundie's claim, Microsoft's WP7 manager Andy Lees stated that he didn't think Siri was "super useful," indicating his company would avoid having its users speak commands to their phones in public, an outlook apparently not shared by the company's "Chief Research and Strategy Officer."

Google: 'Siri is a cute bumbling droid, Android is Enterprise worthy'

Google's Director of Android User Experiences Matias Duarte made similarly dismissive comments about Siri, comparing Apple's technology to, ironically, droid characters in Star Wars by saying that on Apple' s iOS , "you have these robot personalities like C-3PO who runs around and he tries to do stuff for you, messes up and makes jokes, hes kind of a comic relief guy."

In conrast, Duarte said, "our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. Its not that theres a personality, it doesnt have a name, its just 'Computer.'

Just as with Microsoft, developers at Android are also conflicted about the direction of their criticism of Siri. Andy Rubin, the head of Android development at Google, insisted earlier that he doesn't "believe that your phone should be an assistant" like Siri, an opinion seriously incompatible with Duarte's insistence that Android is at least aspiring to be something like the always-helpful bridge computer of Star Trek.

Droid do'hs

In reality, Android is missing any futuristic assistance service like the one Majel Barrett voiced for the crew of the fictitious Star Trek Enterprise. Instead, the company supplies basic voice recognition with accuracy well below Siri's, while lacking the ability to intelligently process user requests to perform sophisticated tasks.

Google does offer a separate Voice Search app, which can respond to some basic commands such as send a text or email, get directions or play music, using the company's Voice Actions technology. However, this service is much closer in scope to Apple's simplistic Voice Commands, as there is no real processing of grammar or ability to integrate into services like Yelp, interact with the users' calendar, or remember relationships between your contacts, among other Siri features.

Other third party apps merely serve as a second skin to Google's voice services, or provide their own voice-based services, such as Vlingo (also available for iOS, making it a option for users who don't have the latest iPhone 4S). These are still basic voice command apps, not anything like a personal assistant incorporated into the operating system.

Android's Clumsy Cluzee

One of the latest Android apps to compare itself to Siri is Cluzee. Despite getting attention in press releases, it was described as "another awful Siri clone" by ExtremeTech, which complained that "the app is plagued with issues, and doesnt have the same functionality that Siri offers."

In a side by side comparison with Siri performing five commands, "it recognized one command [launching a web search] successfully, force-closed on another, then simply refused to understand the other three."

Competitors are racing to appropriate the spotlight Apple has captured with Siri in part because the new feature is working to sell iPhone 4S, Apple's fastest selling smartphone yet. Analysts have noted that in "talking to industry sources, whats driving the 4S is better than expected reception of its new Siri software."

Siri is reported to be one of the largest development groups within Apple, who have worked not just to make Siri functional, but also to "forge an emotional tie with customers."

I love what TellMe thinks he asking in the video. It appears it's using Bing searches to find possible matches hence 'teen anal'. Truth be told TellMe might not good with his Aussie accent so an American accent may have yielded better voice recognition but even beyond that is that it's not doing any of the useful things Siri can do.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Siri's importance will be dismissed until the competition can figure out how to copy and implement something similar. The strategy thus far has been to wait until Apple creates something, then copy it and add features Apple previously left out and then market their product as better.

The "other guys" have to criticize Apples SIRI. If they complemented it then they would be admitting that Apple has designed a great product. I know the SIRI is only beta, but it still is better than anything out there.

I get a kick out of Microsoft and them bragging about their speech recognition. But do they know how inferior it is to SIRI? My God man. Get your head outa your A%$.

Android "force quit". How lame. And that was an app purchased, and having to force quit. How impressive.

Apples SIRI having issues, well its a beta. I bet once the bugs are worked out it will shine like a new penny.

The "other guys" have to criticize Apples SIRI. If they complemented it then they would be admitting that Apple has designed a great product. I know the SIRI is only beta, but it still is better than anything out there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Postulant

Siri's importance will be dismissed until the competition can figure out how to copy and implement something similar. The strategy thus far has been to wait until Apple creates something, then copy it and add features Apple previously left out and then market their product as better.

Give them time.

Apple will not make a video iPod. Nobody wants to watch video on an iPod.

Apple will not add copy and paste to the iPhone. Nobody cares about copy and paste.

Apple will not add multitasking to the iPhone. Nobody cares about multitasking.

Apple will not make a tablet. There is no demand for tablets.

Obviously Steve was using Muhammad Ali's technique of "Rope-A-Dope", and it apparently worked as Apple caught the market flat footed and he delivered a one-two punch delivery of both video on iPods and iPhones and also hammered the market with the iPad.

Microsoft is in total denial. Their Windows Phone has failed hard. their BING search engine has failed hard. Zune failed hard. Silverlight failed hard. XBox failed hard. XBox 360 is falling fast and almost in third place globally now; it will be in last place after this Christmas season. Google is chipping away at their Office monopoly.

All's Microsoft can do is continue raising prices on their Office suite and illegally obtained OS monopoly.

Obviously Steve was using Muhammad Ali's technique of "Rope-A-Dope", and it apparently worked as Apple caught the market flat footed and he delivered a one-two punch delivery of both video on iPods and iPhones and also hammered the market with the iPad.

But the Apple fanboys don't see it as a "technique". Instead, they aggressively defend what is said. But when Apple does release those products or features, those Apple fanboys can't admit that they were wrong. Instead, they change their story and spin it to say "Apple was planning to do it all along".

The "other guys" have to criticize Apples SIRI. If they complemented it then they would be admitting that Apple has designed a great product. I know the SIRI is only beta, but it still is better than anything out there.

I get a kick out of Microsoft and them bragging about their speech recognition. But do they know how inferior it is to SIRI? My God man. Get your head outa your A%$.

I can't tell to what degree Microsoft's spin on Siri is just obligatory trash talking the competition and how much is really head-up-assness. We know that owning an iPhone around Microsoft campus is a guilty pleasure a lot of Microsofties have to hide from their bosses, lest Ballmer walk over and stomp on your iPhone. And of course, Melinda Gates has to say that no members of their family can bring Apple devices into their home. But there was an interview with Bill Gates where he compliments the iPhone while dismissing the iPad. It was (to the best of my recall) something like, "[the iPad is] not like when I saw the iPhone in 2007 and thought, my god, we didn't aim high enough..." So I don't think Microsoft management has their heads totally up their asses. They just can't publicly say nice things about Apple.

Apple will not add copy and paste to the iPhone. Nobody cares about copy and paste.

Apple will not add multitasking to the iPhone. Nobody cares about multitasking.

Apple will not make a tablet. There is no demand for tablets.

Please understand the difference between "will not" and "has no current plans to". While I do remember Steve dissing video on iPods (due to screen size), I don't ever recall them saying that any of the other things in the absolute sense that you have stated them. Plus, you're missing the point, the issue is that Apple's competitors are actually dissing the product, none of the statements you made above do that. It'd be like Apple dissing the Samsung Galaxy by stating that no one wants a 4+" display, or by saying that no one wants a removable battery. Rather, they say that they think that it's more important currently to have a larger non-removable battery or having a smaller but higher pixel density display.

But that's the real difference, Apple will rarely (notice I said rarely, not never) come out and diss someone else's product. Outside of 7" displays, when is the last time that Apple officially poopoo'ed a competitors wares? They may not always be open about what's in the pipeline and express it by telling you why you don't absolutely need it right now, but they generally won't bad mouth it while harboring this secret man crush on their competitors implementation.

I can't tell to what degree Microsoft's spin on Siri is just obligatory trash talking the competition and how much is really head-up-assness. We know that owning an iPhone around Microsoft campus is a guilty pleasure a lot of Microsofties have to hide from their bosses, lest Ballmer walk over and stomp on your iPhone. And of course, Melinda Gates has to say that no members of their family can bring Apple devices into their home. But there was an interview with Bill Gates where he compliments the iPhone while dismissing the iPad. It was (to the best of my recall) something like, "[the iPad is] not like when I saw the iPhone in 2007 and thought, my god, we didn't aim high enough..." So I don't think Microsoft management has their heads totally up their asses. They just can't publicly say nice things about Apple.

Here it is )( there is the ass, now here is Microsofts head up their ass. )M(. LOL.

every Siri ad and article makes me that much more angry that apple killed the Siri app that i had on my iPhone 4 for more than a year before the release of the 4S. i refuse to upgrade in order to use a feature that i used to use daily. i'll wait for the iPhone 6,9 and the iPad 3.14, or whatever rumor is circulating now.

I was reading today that SIRI seems to be pro-life. Meanwhile, Google is more than happy to help people with murdering their fetuses.

Ask the Siri, the new iPhone 4 assistant, where to get an abortion, and, if you happen to be in Washington, D.C., she wont direct you to the Planned Parenthood on 16th St, NW. Instead, shell suggest you pay a visit to the 1st Choice Womens Health Center, an anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) in Landsdowne, Virginia, or Human Life Services, a CPC in York, Pennsylvania. Ask Google the same question, and youll get ads for no less than 7 metro-area abortion clinics, 2 CPCs and a nationwide abortion referral service.

Which is why Apple's original mobile operating system was called the iPhone OS, and not iOS until it was enlarged to work on the iPad some 3 years after the iPhone's introduction.

Are you calling Steve Jobs a liar?

Because that's straight from his mouth.

"It began with the tablet. I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on with your fingers. I asked our people about it. And six months later, they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He got scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, 'my God, we can build a phone with this!' So we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the iPhone."

"It began with the tablet. I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on with your fingers. I asked our people about it. And six months later, they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He got scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, 'my God, we can build a phone with this!' So we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the iPhone."

"It began with the tablet. I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on with your fingers. I asked our people about it. And six months later, they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He got scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, 'my God, we can build a phone with this!' So we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the iPhone."

1) They spent a year and half working on Siri before the public beta, tt does a great many things the Siri app couldn't do, and it's the best in class.

2) The Siri they bought was for the conversational interface and personal context awareness, not for voice recognition. They license from Nuance Communication for that, making your claims that the Siri purchase was simply a reactionary tactic to own voice recognition patently false.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Which is why Apple's original mobile operating system was called the iPhone OS, and not iOS until it was enlarged to work on the iPad some 3 years after the iPhone's introduction.

You have made you're self look a complete tit here. Steve himself on video said they were working on the iPad first. You really need to know what you're talking about. Other than just trolling every post

You have made you're self look a complete tit here. Steve himself on video said they were working on the iPad first. You really need to know what you're talking about. Other than just trolling every post

Get used to it... He's as clueless as they come. I remember he used to post pictures of his crappy Archos Tablets while ridiculing the iPad.

If you get him riled up, he'll go bat shit crazy and commence to centering all his posts.

You have made you're self look a complete tit here. Steve himself on video said they were working on the iPad first. You really need to know what you're talking about. Other than just trolling every post

...and because Steve said it, on video no less, it surely must be the absolute truth.